Ensnared (Splintered, #3) QUOTES

1 " And there, in the midst of blinding orange, yellow, and white flames, our forever begins. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

2 " Another thread snaps loose from my heart, the pain precise and acute. I embrace it, because it reminds me I'm still here. I'm alive. I'm empowered. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

3 " You have that boy on such a high pedestal. It’s far too slippery up there for one so unprincipled as a solitary fae. It’s not as if I haven’t tried to drag him down. I looked inside his soul. Hoped to find his weaknesses. Only to discover that even those could be considered strengths under the right circumstances. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

4 " We have regiments as innumerable as the sands...And arsenals as uncountable as the stars. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

5 " They have both loved you with a child’s love, and now a man’s. It is the child’s love that holds you together . . . cemented by the moments you shared with them that they treasure most. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

6 " Oh, but my netherling side did, and she casts my human armor aside.
She guides my hands, knots my fingers through his hair, teases his tongue with hers. She won’t let me pull away, because she wants to be there again. In Wonderland, where his tobacco-flavored kisses always take us . . .
Because the things I loathe are the things she adores: His snark, his infuriating condescension. His menacing mastery of half-truths and riddles. The way he shoves me into the face of danger, forces me to look beyond my fears and reach for my full potential.
Most of all, because he encourages me to believe in the madness ...in her . . . the darker side of myself: the queen who was born to reign over the Red kingdom and to give Wonderland a legacy of dreams and imagination.
His gloved palms seek the bend of my waist, the bow of my hips. He moves me on top of him, so close there’s not enough space for a blade of grass between us. His kisses grow insistent, desperate. His flavor winds through me, fruit and smoke and earth, and other things born of shadows and storms . . . things I can’t put a name to. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

7 " Yes. But I let you leave again, last year after you were crowned. And all those nights I brought you to Wonderland in your dreams, even though it pained me for you to abandon our dreamscapes and return to the mortal realm, I let you go each morning to live your reality there. It may not seem much when compared to your mortal’s gallantry. But for me—self-seeking, arrogant prig that I am—that is the sincerest form of sacrifice. Letting you go. Do you not see that? "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

8 " Salty tears stream down my face—coating my lips as I mutter senseless apologies for so many things. So many irreversible things.
Morpheus peels the vines off and lifts me, cradling me to his chest. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

9 " I hold on to the nape of Morpheus’s neck, burying my face in his jacket. Nikki and Chessie burrow into my hair. I inhale Morpheus’s scent. It’s the only thing I recognize, the only thing that’s safe.
He carries me back to the well-lit room and sets me gently on the table. I can’t stop trembling. My throat aches from holding back sobs. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

10 " Oh, I stand by that statement, little blossom. For you see, there’s the chance you will break down and come between the two of you. Every night we’re together, I will tempt you to the edge of madness. I will tease you to torments. You will have to earn Jebediah’s happy life by being strong and unbending, as all good queens should be. Though this night, I’m giving you a lull. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

11 " He stretches languorously under me, and the silvery scar on his abdomen catches the light, that telltale mark from Sister Two when he fought her inside Butterfly Threads just weeks ago. When he almost died to help me and Jeb escape. But I didn’t let him die, because I couldn’t imagine a world without him.
I can’t imagine a future without him, either. Not anymore. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

12 " “Shut up!” I say, laughing hysterically. Alice transforms back to an inanimate jade piece as I toss her. My aim is off and she plops into Morpheus’s tea, splattering him and the chessboard.
With a graceful sweep of his hand, he retracts his magic. Tea drizzles down his face as his inky eyes turn up to mine, alight with something both dangerous and daring, shifting moods faster than I can blink.
“Careful, plum.” It’s his deep cockney accent now. He wipes his face with a napkin. “Don’t start something you have no intention of finishing.”
“Oh, I’ll finish it,” I say—spurred by the dark confidence fluttering at the edge of my psyche. The side of me that knows I’m his match in every way. “And you know I’ll win.” I rise from my chair to scope out the room for weapons, vaguely aware of the prisms of glittery light reflected off my skin onto the surroundings.
“I know I’ll let you win,” Morpheus says, standing up. “I won’t even put up a fight.” His white-toothed smile spans to something forebodingly provocative, as though mimicking the spread of his wings. “Well, perhaps a small one, just for sport.” "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

13 " I shove him back. “I can convince him.”
“What? By seducing him?” Morpheus scoffs. “I have half a mind to let you try. Whatever it takes to get the boy out of your system once and for all.”
An angry throb pulses in my temples. “You’re right. You do only have half a mind if you think your ‘letting’ me has anything to do with anything.” "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

14 " His soft lips glide across my jaw. I’m dazzled by his touch, drugged by his promises, falling deeper and deeper into him. Before he reaches my mouth, I catch his hands and roll him off until he’s the one on his back, his wings no longer a hiding place but silky black pools along the ground.
I prop my top half over his so I’m in control. “I can’t think,” I whisper. “You’re making me crazy.”
“Insanity is the most pristine clarity.” He winds a leg around my hips and topples me onto him. “Let the lunacy in. Let it be your guide.” One corner of his mouth lifts to a boyish grin. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

15 " “I would’ve followed you anywhere,” he mumbles, his voice raw with agony. “All I ever wanted was to spend forever with my best friend. With the girl who gave life to my paintings. But I’m not the one who inspired your mosaics, am I? It was always Wonderland. That’s why you chose him.”
“Chose him? It was a kiss, that’s all—”
“It’s not the kiss. Sometimes words are louder than actions.”
“Words . . . ? What words?”
“The promise you gave him that you couldn’t give me.” "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

16 " It’s important that he accepts my love for Jeb. I’ll have to tell Jeb the same thing about Morpheus before I’m gone. I will not leave them with lies hanging between us. “I love you both.” "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

17 " Jeb smiles—a genuine Jebediah Holt grin, complete with dimples. Such a beautiful distraction. “I love you, skater girl.”
The nickname winds through me, comforting and sweet. I smooth my palm across his shoulder. “Say it again.”
“I love you.”
“No . . . the other part,” I plead.
He pulls my body to his, so our mouths come together in a warm, soft kiss. “Skater girl,” he whispers against me, brushing hair from my face. "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

18 " “Remember that time you dumped out a whole box of bait?”
I almost smile. It was the summer before eighth grade. Dad bought crickets at the bait shop. “They were screaming for help.” "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

19 " “Remember that time you dumped out a whole box of bait?”
I almost smile. It was the summer before eighth grade. Dad bought crickets at the bait shop. “They were screaming for help.”

***

“And your dad,” Jeb continues. “He didn’t get mad that you turned the bugs loose. He just pulled out the aluminum lures, and that’s what we used from then on. I never knew a father could be like that. Forgiving. Kind. He’s the best guy I know. Pretty sure he saved my life a time or two.” "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)

20 " “And in the process,” Morpheus says from beside the fireplace, “you’ll destroy some of her best qualities.”
Mom and Ivory glance at him, as if taken aback to hear those words coming from his lips.
He sits hard on the chaise lounge, wings draped over the back, then slouches with elbows on knees. The silvery flames flicker across his bejeweled face. “What of her whimsy and curiosity, her compassion and loyalty? Her imagination, her dreams. These are all part of her humanness.” "

― A.G. Howard , Ensnared (Splintered, #3)